HTC raised eyebrows when it priced its Vive virtual-reality headset several hundred dollars above rival devices. But the company believes it has an edge.

The Vive is in a “great position” because of HTC’s partnership with the closely held videogame company Valve Corp., Daniel O’Brien, vice president of virtual reality for HTC, said Thursday at an industry conference in New York.

Valve, known for the PC game “Half-Life,” operates an online store and community called Steam that boasts 125 million customers. They are mostly serious PC gamers who already own high-end rigs and are accustomed to downloading and paying for games online.

“The number of customers that already has a PC that can support a Vive is a very healthy base for us to start,” Mr. O’Brien said. He called the collaboration with Valve “a match made in heaven.”

Vive ultimately will face off against Facebook’s Oculus Rift, Sony’s PlayStation VR and others in the race for control of the nascent virtual-reality market. At Mobile World Congress this week in Barcelona, HTC said the Vive will cost about $799. The price includes a headset, two wireless controllers, and two motions sensors for tracking body movement. It needs to connect to a high-end PC to operate.

The Oculus, which also requires a beefy PC and has its own array of peripheral devices, costs roughly $200 less. Sony hasn’t said how much PlayStation VR will cost; it runs on the PlayStation 4 console, which at $350 is a bargain compared to high-end PCs. Sony also has its own online store through the PlayStation console.

All three higher-end pieces of virtual-reality hardware will compete against smartphone-based goggles that aren’t as powerful but are more accessible in the price department.

In an interview, Mr. O’Brien said the Vive is easy to set up. “A lot of people misunderstand and think you need this big space or that you have to mount base stations into your wall at a perfect height,” he said. But that's not the case, he said. “You just plug it in and have fun.”